"Dude, you stare at her picture, you write about her, you have pictures with her, just tell her!"
"No way! She'd laugh at me! She'd think I'm bloody ridiculous!" he yelled
"Dude! She'd be happy! Calm the hell down" I laughed
"How do you know? Did you say something to her?" James glared.
"No. It's just common sense. Do you want me to find out from her friends what she'd say?"
"Yes! Please man yes!" James shouted, jumping over the top of the couch and grabbing my arms. "Kendall, you gotta do this for me!"
"Calm down and I will!" I laughed, that's how I ended up where I am now. Standing in front of three girls who used to be friends with Cami, and asking the world's most ridiculous question.
"Hey girls, James wants to know if Cami likes anyone, any ideas." I asked, fighting to stay pale in the face.
"Yeah she likes someone, she likes someone in the band" they said...thanks girls, very useful, NOT.
"Okay, thanks" I said, walking off to find Cami herself. Wow this is too much like a movie. When I found her, she stood, Red hair hanging down her back freely, black cargo pants and red t-shirt, arms crossed. She told me that she liked James...freaky...i took the report back to James, he was ecstatic.
"Really?"
"Yes man, really"
"How can you tell?"
"She had her arms crossed and she had that look on her face"
"This one?" he asked, mimicking the pout Cami had on her face when she told the truth.
"Yeah, now never do that again. You look ridiculous when you do."
"Whatever, she likes me!"
"Yes, now go and talk to her so you can shut up!"
"Wait...talk to her...you mean, like, face to face?"
"Yes face to face, Cami's cronies aren't great messengers you know"
"True..."
"I still don't see why you like her, she's vicious" I joked.
"Meaning she can look after herself, we had a heart to heart in detention the other week; she told me all this stuff. She told me that this whole 'tough girl' thing is fake, it's just a mask she uses to avoid being picked on for being weak. Because she says she actually is. She's a normal girl, she's not prissy, she's not a tomboy, she's normal. She loves her family and her pets, she lives for music, she hates school, cause let's face it, who doesn't? She sings, she dances, but she's too scared to let anyone see the real her...she told me..."
James' POV
(Flashback)
Detention...so boring.
"So what're you in for?"
"Defending myself against a bigger dude" she smirked, tossing her long red hair over her shoulder.
"I don't know why I'm in here"
"I do, someone wrote your name on the wall in the bathrooms, therefore they thought it was you, ta-da"
"You know, you act so tough, but you don't really look the part, why is that?" I said, trying to change the topic.
"Swear you'll never open your mouth about this again and I'll tell you" she hissed, the teacher motioned for us to quiet down.
"I swear" I whispered.
"As a little girl I used to get picked on because I loved music, I loved to dance, my favourite thing to do was sing, but I was little and pink. I'd get called little piggy because of the pink shirts mum would send me to school in, and whenever they picked on me I squealed. One day a couple of the kids who messed with me cornered me...they...they beat me up, for two days I was in hospital on a drip. I couldn't remember my own name for a couple of days. But when I remembered everything I swore two things, one: I would toughen up and two: I swore I would get them back. I'm still partially injured because of that. I was told I would never fully heal. They beat me with ropes as whips and pelted me with rocks, one even had a switchblade. He cut my shoulder and beat my back, I still have the scars, and I'm partially injured because one of them hit a weak point and snapped a piece of bone in my ankle, slicing a vein open. I can't run properly since, that's why I don't do p.e. I always fight off potential bullies now because I don't want to do that ever again. It just wasn't worth the trouble. Inside I'm still that little girl fighting for survival" she grimaced.
(End flashback)
I always wondered why she had opened up to me. Maybe it was plaguing her for so long she just had to tell someone. I wasn't really shocked. I had secrets that plagued me that I would be able to hold in to a certain extent, but everyone had their breaking points. Thinking about her, the image of what she used to look like popped into my head. A younger, happier, smiling brown haired child on a motorbike for a person her height. She was ten in that picture. Eight years had gone by since those days. Those pictures hung on her locker door, I had seen them. She had explained them to me, the motorbike was a gift from her father, who loved his motorbikes and seeing as they had near a farm, he saw no reason why his youngest daughter shouldn't have one. She had clearly loved it. She still rode motorbikes, she had a black Kawasaki ninja designed for speed, it was awesome, and it looked like it was sharp, because instead of curves, it had straight lines like plane wings. It had a couple of stickers on it, but they didn't make the bike any less awesome, one was a cartoon skeleton that had a speech bubble that read 'watch it mother fucker' and everyone knew what word the permanent marker hid. Another one (my personal favourite) was a gothic sort of type of sticker that read 'Big Time Rush' so she clearly liked our music, not that she looked like she wouldn't, just her attitude made you think otherwise...
Sitting by the pool in my swimmers, I spotted that gleam. The gleam of red that I knew so well. Cami had arrived. She wore a black skull print rash shirt and regular blue swimmer shorts that went at least half way down her thighs. She had her iPod in, and her lips were moving. I listened closely and heard her singing along to 'Halfway There'. The song we had released last week. It was at least nine at night and the sun was down, so she figured no one else was there, she began to sing louder. She was actually a really powerful singer. When she took the headphones out of her ears and jumped in the pool, I moved to sit at the edge of the pool, letting my bare feet hang in the warm water. She surfaced after I made this move. She didn't shriek or panic. She just swam to the edge I sat on and said calmly "trying to scare me?"
"Figured I should make myself known before I was branded a stalker"
"Good move"
"So what brings you to the pool?"
"It's a place to drown your sorrows without alcohol, at least, that's what Nan always said" she smiled. The warm breeze caused ripples in the water, almost as if emphasizing her sentence. I smiled at her optimism.
"Well, I guess your Nan was right. I won't argue with that, but what sorrows?"
"The same things I told you about constantly come back to bite me in the ass. Those three boys that bashed me found me today. They kept calling me the same things they used to call me, one even slapped me. That's nothing though because in return I gave him a bloody nose and warned the other two that they would get worse if they didn't leave. They followed me home. Now they know where I live, with my sister and her husband. Sara is a nice person, we have our moments, but she and her husband would do anything to keep me safe. My niece needs a babysitter, so we compromise, I look after Kayla, and they let me stay." She explained. I just let her talk, not wanting to be rude plus not wanting to add to her troubles. She seemed more at ease when she finished talking.
"You know, you can always come and stay with us if they find you"
"I might just have to take you up on that, they won't stop till they get what they want, and I won't let them send me back to hospital, but I can't get a restraining order without my parents for two years, then when I turn nineteen I can get one, but my parents won't let me so I have to wait until my birthday. I just have to hope they don't find me before then" this girl really talked when she had trouble on her tail, one of the things I loved. She wasn't as violent as she seems to be. She'll fight in self defence but otherwise she's almost a pacifist. I don't blame her, violence is corrupt, and it just plain sucks. I slid into the warm water, getting sick of the cold air, and rested my arms on the side of the pool. She sunk under the water and took me with her. I took a deep breath and submerged. She smiled at me under the water. I smiled back. The water was really clear, the only blur was the unnatural feeling on my eyes, but otherwise it was easy to see. I surface and she followed.
"What was the point of that?" I laughed.
"It was cold, I was bored, the timing was right, and so I went for it. I must say, your legs are freakishly hairless for an eighteen year old." She chuckled.
"Thanks...i think" I smiled, I knew that my legs were weird, I had been told that by several people, but it ran in the family. I crawled out of the water and ran to the diving blocks. Cami wasn't far behind me. I stumbled when I climbed atop one, but I held my balance. She clambered onto the one next to me. She turned her head to face me.
"Race ya to the other end?"
"And back?"
"You're on" she smiled.
"3..."
"2..." she counted
"1!" we shouted in unison. We charged through the water, her in front, me kicking as hard as I could through the bubbly water. the bubbles whooshed past my face and I touched the tiles on the other side of the pool, using them to propel myself in the other direction, for a second I was in the lead, but I forgot she plays dirty, she elbowed my side, not hard enough to hurt me but enough to push me off course. She continued past me and I retorted, grabbing her ankle. She pulled me back on course and I continued to swim, we were neck and neck, I pulled my head out of the water before I touched the wall, only to see her already sitting on the concrete side of the pool.
"Cheat" I laughed.
"It's my job" she smiled back. A simple smile reflected on the water from her face. I rarely got to see her smile like this, so I enjoyed the moment. Something I didn't understand, Kendall says Cami likes me, but Cami's just so independent, she doesn't seem to like anyone or want anyone, but she claims she does.
"I was told by Kendall that you like someone. You always act independent, like you don't want to like someone, so how exactly does that work?" I asked, praying she knew what I meant.
"Well, it's complicated, but I'm only eighteen, life is complicated, just like the three fuck-it-eers. Sorry for swearing, but anyway. I guess I don't know what I want, but my head seems to think it does. So it just pulls you towards someone, you know what I mean?" I nodded, she continued "and mine pulls me towards that certain someone, and I feel like I can be open with them."
"Just like you are with me, why are you so open with me? You're never open to anyone else, so from what you just said..."
"Don't laugh; most people do when they find out. Just don't."
"I don't know why I would, I'm not that insensitive. But, no offence, why me?"
"You understand, you don't mock me like other people do, you actually want to help me when I need it. That's more than anyone else has ever done for me except for Kendall and Sara" she frowned. Her life must have really sucked.
"What about your parents?"
"Sure they fed and clothed me, but my dad constantly told me I was the biggest mistake he ever made and my mum told me my dad was a filthy liar. They got divorced a while after and life was good, until I put up the tough front, then I got further apart from my mum, my sister living with my dad and all, I had no one to talk to. I gave up. I hung out in my room, mum sent me to counselling for self harm and depression, even though I wasn't cutting, I just hated it because she took the stress of the divorce out on me, and her pregnancy wasn't helping. I have a dead little sister, a married older sister, and a mother who doesn't understand, so I'm a pretty solitary person, don't ya think?"
"I wouldn't have even come close to guessing that from looking at you. But, why was your mum pregnant?"
"My dad and my mum had a drunk one night stand, never seen each other since, dad doesn't know about Brooklyn, enough said"
"Brooklyn?"
"Miscarried baby girl"
"Oh."
We talked, I learned her life story she learned mine, mine was way happier than hers, she had been addicted to self-harm for a while, but she stopped that. She was fine now. Much happier. I wondered why, after learning the gruesome truth, I still liked her.
I left for a day at college the next day, I saw her the next day.
"Hey Cami"
"Hey Jay"
"Jay?"
"Easier than James"
"Oh, how you holding up?"
"Fine actually, I slept better than I had in ten years last night after finally getting all of that off my chest." She smiled; I noticed her cheek was shiny. I stepped closer and wiped her cheek. Foundation coated my thumb.
"Brandon and Cameron found you didn't they?" I asked.
"And Blake. They did that with a baseball bat." She confessed.
"I'm guessing there's worse." I grimaced.
"23 stitches and twelve hours later, here I am"
"Stitches?"
"Broken bottles, switch blade and a gun"
"They shot you?"
"Hit me over the head and broke the skin with it actually"
"You're going home"
"actually, I'm not. I was told to stay in public areas so I can get help if they find me again. They're gonna keep beating me. They told me"
"Where were you when they found you?"
"My sister's place"
"You're staying with me. I don't care if you're against it, you are staying with me"
"They would see that coming. They expect me to run. They won't expect me to stay where they attacked me. I'm staying with Sara"
"I have a bodyguard; he won't let anyone touch you"
"Neither would Chris"
"Chris?"
"My brother in law"
"I'm staying with you then"
"Fine"
"Good" the conversation ended abruptly.
"You want to see the stitches don't you?" she chuckled
"A little" I confessed, staring at my feet.
"Come on" she said, taking my hand and leading me to a disabled bathroom on the premises. She lifted the back of her shirt, revealing the scratches and the one long gash creating a halved effect on her skin, continuing the scar on her shoulder. She would return the favour I knew, but I didn't know how long she could keep this up. She was tough, but she can't take this punishment forever. No one can.